


Homesick Home

by ThatScottishShipper



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Don’t post to another site, Family, Found Family, Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron)-centric, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 15:59:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18944230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatScottishShipper/pseuds/ThatScottishShipper
Summary: Homesick Lance thinks of all the things he misses about his family back home, and his current place in Team Voltron.





	Homesick Home

_Space dust sucked_ , Lance told himself often in the early days.

The stuff was everywhere, impossible to avoid, and a major irritant of the eyeballs. It was little wonder Loverboy Lance geared up at every opportunity, in every corner of the Castle of Lions.

Place probably hadn't had a dust down in thousands of years. Someone should really get onto that.

Can't have a Sharpshooter so itchy, red eyes totally caused by floating particles invisible to the eye, and are absolutely a real thing, no doubt about it.

  
Then the door closed, and his heart tore open, weeping for home.

  
In the quietness of space, alone with his thoughts on the Bridge, Lance reminisced about all the little things about home he missed, things he realised with a heavy heart he took for granted.

Lance wanted to feel the kiss from the sunshine against his skin again, and the sensation of the sand beneath his toes. He remembered the wonder of exploring nearby caves that, upon hindsight, might have foreshadowed his adventurous spirit.

He missed the cool rainfall after a particularly hot and humid season, and those breathtaking rainbows arching into the plentiful palm trees, gently rustling in the nice, cool breezes.

He yearned for splashing in the puddles after a brilliant shower from the heavens, the child in him bursting free with every playful stomp of his feet. He even wished for the attention of his older sisters, who shook their heads and rolling their friendly eyes playfully.

Lance longed for the lively music that vibrated from the heart of his hometown, that desire to dance, dance, _dance_ , every time a new beat of the drums or the strum of a guitar touched his soul. (Even if big sis, Veronica, insisted he had two left feet, that didn't stop him.)

  
Entertainment such as video games felt like a whole lifetime away, even if he were surrounded with technological advancements beyond his own. The absence of conveniences like plug sockets and chargers in the clean and almost cold atmosphere of the flying space castle he now found himself in only exasperated his home sickness.

It all felt too strange, reminding him that no matter how sweet his dreams were, Lance would always wake up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, in a unfamiliar pocket of the universe.

A small, insignificant speck in the eternal ebony silk that was the Galaxy’s mysterious hood. Lance always imagine the night time like that, a long black cloak twinkling with sequin-like Stars dragging along the sky, but no matter how scary the dark was, dawn always came.

But space? A whole different ball game, a round that went on forever.

  
Everytime he entered the dining hall or the kitchen, Lance felt a pang of nostalgia, melancholy swelling his lonely heart with every thought of his childhood. A little Lance, running into the welcoming kitchen, tugging at his Mother's apron, the warm scent of garlic and dough filling the air.

Lance could never forget his Mother's classic garlic knots. Drizzled with melted butter, the right amount of garlic, and a lot of love, the memory - like his Mom’s own hugs - comforted him with a warm embrace, a sense of safety. The burst of flavour from every bite, the warmth tingling his palm whenever he held one, and that mouth watering aroma?

Unforgettable.

  
And then, as always Lance thought of them, his _awesome_ family, and the space dust really went to town on his sensitive dark blue eyes. Every face within his large family came and went, leaving him with an overbearing weight that followed him everywhere, like Noctura's hood, a heavy shadow that dragged his mood down just when he thought he was coping.

His Mom, his Dad, his Grandpa and Grandma. His two brothers, Marco and Luis. His sister-in-law, Lisa, and her two kids, Nadia and Sylvio (how he missed being “cool Uncle Lance.”) His sisters, Veronica and Rachel.

Even those stray cats he brought home from time to time, that tended to prefer the cool Veronica to the excitable Lance.

The last day he saw them all was the morning he left for the Garrison, ready to fulfill his dreams of one day being a fighter pilot. He still remembered the group hug from his entire family, their pride flowing through him and staying with him to this day.

They had been over the moon when he got his acceptance letter. It was impossible to imagine their faces when he told them he was a Paladin of Voltron, and then the wall broke.

  
He missed his family, realising with every passing day in space, that he might never see them again for a long time. Sometimes, a twinge of panic took hold inside him, and he wondered worryingly…

What if that long time turned from super long time to... _never_?

That terrified Lance beyond words, causing him to posture, and panic, and lash out at worst, or crack an endless tirade of jokes to ease the pain at best. What else could this dashing, but lonely space cowboy do when the chips were down and the dip was dry?

  
And he wasn't alone. Stuck on an unfamiliar space craft with four fellow Earthlings, knighted as Paladins, Defenders of the Universe? As awesome and the stuff of childhood dreams as it initially seemed, once the dream clouds drifted and reality set in, the awareness of the danger lurking in the vast reaches of space became very real.

He also came to realise that he might be a Robot Leg for a long time, which meant longer away from Earth, from his loved ones.

  
Sometimes, it made Lance feel selfish. His merry band of galactic bad guy butt kickers all lost something special back home when his Blue Lion decided to hightail it to space with everyone on board.

Hunk always talked about his family, and it was something the Blue and Yellow Paladin bonded over when they first got assigned together in a team. They shared stories from their younger years, and admittedly a cry or two whenever they got letters from home.

Shiro never really talked about his own family, but he was super popular, the Golden Boy of the Garrison. Even if they parted before Kerberos, Shiro must have thought about his ex, Adam, from time to time? And Keith was practically attached to his hip, so it's not like he was without familiar company.

Keith and Pidge were much more secretive about their personal lives, but surely they had family back on Earth? Or something else they missed dearly?

Then there was Princess Allura, and her eccentric butler of sorts, Coran, who already lost their home to the Galra, blasted ridiculous years into the future. They lost everything they knew, and that made Lance ponder.

 

What if the same thing happened to Earth one day? The Galra came, then Earth was gone.

Burying his face against his knees, holding everything in, Lance tried not to think about that. He had to stay on the positive side, he just had to.

…

...That's right. Lance wasn't alone.

 

He had Shiro, and Keith, and Hunk, and Pidge, and Allura, and Coran, and even the space mice.

They were all united by a purpose, a destiny. It had to be, right? What were the odds that all five of them met on that mysterious night, after saving Shiro, then coming across a Lion of Voltron.

 _His_ Lion.

 

As the stars on the constellation map continued to dance overheard, Lance raised his head, remembering another moment in time, not too long ago. He and his friends stood where he sat now, bestowed their Lions by Allura, and their own personal relation to the Voltron team.

Thanks to his admittedly big mouth, Lance never did find out why the Blue Lion chose him, or why he was best suited for being the Blue Paladin. Shiro was the leader, Pidge was the brains, Hunk was the rock that kept everything and everyone together, and Keith?

Well, Keith was Keith as always, Lance assumed. Never away from Shiro’s side, literally the right hand guy, and just… a _natural_. Once Keith took to the Red Lion, all those memories of training at the Garrison, being his self-proclaimed rival, and wanting to finally beat him, came back.

 

His pride at being the first to take the reins of a Voltron Lion, to be chosen, evaporated to dust. It reminded him of the ribbing he got after Keith was expelled.

Lance only got to where he was, as a fighter pilot, because Keith left. He only got promoted from cargo pilot because a better flier tapped out.

His confidence crashed and burned _hard_. No matter how eager he was to prove himself, to show his worth, every playful jab or teasing joke was saturated with insecurity, dripping with what remained of his rock bottom self-esteem.

 

On those rare opportunities of honesty in his heart, Lance felt that maybe Keith was everything he _wanted_ to be. A born talent, unmatched in the pilot’s seat, with a cool air of mystery to him (even if his social skills left something to be desired.)

And under the wing of Takashi Shirogane, Lance’s number one hero. Who wouldn't want to get his attention? But his attempt to be the hero and save Shiro crumbled once more, again at the hands of Keith.

Shiro and Keith's friendship continued where it had left off, as if the Kerberos Mission never happened. And once more, Lance felt like third wheel, stuck along for the ride.

Or was it fifth wheel?

 

Even at the controls of a Voltron Lion, somehow piloting everyone to safety, and even connecting his consciousness to Blue, by the time he landed, doubt clouded his mind, eating away at him a little more every day.

 _Why_ he was here? Why was he a Paladin of Voltron, of the Blue Lion of all things? What exactly could he offer to a team of people that - in his anxious eyes - outclassed him in every department?

Lance sighed. Talk about being lost figuratively and literally.

 

But Lance could do this. He knew deep down in his heart he could.

Because as tough as things got, people believed in him. His family believed in him, and his friends did too.

Lance was still a Paladin of Voltron, strongly bond to the Blue Lion, and without him, Voltron couldn't form.

They were a team, and - for the lonely boy from Cuba - the closest thing to family he had. No, they were family. When the homesickness returned, or the gnawing doubt and worry tire at him, Lance held onto that affirmation.

_I'm not alone. We're together in this._

_We're a team, we’re friends, we’re family._

_I'm their Blue Paladin_.

A soft starlight from above reaching down to illuminate the Son of Voltron, trailing along his chestnut brown hair, all the way down to his worn sneakers. He managed a small smile, rubbing his lapis blue eyes that glistened in the cosmic glow.

 

As hard as things seemed right then, Lance still had time to find himself, and strengthen his confidence as a Paladin.

And with his own quirky space family? He wasn't alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by my favourite Lance moment in VLD where he reflects on the things he misses back on Earth, especially his family. Lance's homesickness was a part of Voltron that always stayed with me because it showed a real vulnerability to him. And it was very early, right back in S1.
> 
> At the end of the day, they're still young people far away from home in a dangerous situation in unfamiliar territory, and beneath his comedy exterior is this fragile soul.
> 
> This is an idea I bounced around since first watching Voltron, but I never quite got around to it. Since I've not been as active and into Voltron recently, I wanted to put this piece out there.
> 
> I do hope to return once in awhile with Voltron fics and update soon, after taking a fresh bit of time to recover from the aftermath of S8. The break was good, and while I'm in love with other fandoms, I do want to return to Voltron stories from time to time.
> 
> Sorry about the wait, everyone.
> 
> Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. <3


End file.
